Cheapening

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. The act of reducing the worth or quality of something
2. A process that causes something to lose value or become less prestigious
3. The action of diminishing the importance or excellence of an item or concept

Etymology: "Cheapening" is the present participle of "cheapen", and the verb itself is simply "cheap" plus the suffix "-en", which turns an adjective into a verb meaning to make something so. "Cheap" comes from an Old English word meaning bargain or price, so the adjective began as a noun about cost before it came to describe goods sold for little. The "-en" ending has been attached to English adjectives for centuries, as in "widen", "sharpen" and "soften", and "cheapen" follows that same pattern. The word's story is less about the suffix than about the sense it carries. Making something cheap usually means lowering its value, and that is the core of "cheapening" as used today. A product, an argument or a reputation can be cheapened in exactly the same way: it loses worth without any change in its physical form.

Synonyms: devaluing, diminishing, reducing, discounting, lowering

Antonyms: valuing, appreciating, enhancing, raising, elevating